By Lauren Phillips, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Coast
May 14, 2024
Tents are up in front of the Henry Hicks administration building on Dal’s Studley Campus, organized by a coalition of students across four Halifax universities–NSCAD, SMU, Dal and King’s–using the name “Students for the Liberation of Palestine.” They have renamed the space of campus lawn “Al Zeitoun” University, written in Arabic as جامعة الزيتون and meaning “olive,” says a student-organizer who announced the name Sunday, as the encampment opened that afternoon. Students from each university read their demands aloud to a circle of supporters. They were joined by faculty and community members who took turns voicing their support for the organized student-led action at Dal.
Two non-student groups have shared their written statements of support. The recently formed Nova Scotia chapter of the Jewish Faculty Network shared theirs through a spokesperson who read it aloud at the encampment. It reads in part: “Halifax students have begun an encampment at Dalhousie University in support of beleaguered Gazans, as has happened at eight universities in Canada and over 90 around the world. As with the others, we expect it to be entirely peaceful and informational. “We are hoping that this encampment is not attacked by the usual complaints from some Jewish institutional organizations, like the Atlantic Jewish Council and B’nai Brith, that Jewish students are feeling intimidated and unsafe, followed by demands that the authorities should therefore get the police to clear the protesters out. “We are a group of Jewish professors at Nova Scotia universities, part of the Jewish Faculty Network, a pan-Canadian organization, and we say that disagreement and debate over contentious political issues is a mainstay of campus life. We also say that allegations of un-safety of Jewish students are unfounded and part of a broad campaign to shut down criticism of Israel…
“We categorically oppose police intervention to remove encampments and urge Dalhousie, and all of Halifax’s universities, to treat them as the educational events they are and can be.”
Faculty across several Atlantic universities shared their statement of solidarity, which reads in part:
“We are a group of faculty who work at Dalhousie, Saint Mary’s, Mount Saint Vincent, Saint Francis Xavier, and Mount Allison universities.
“We are offering our support to students who are exercising their rights to free expression, the free exchange of academic ideas, and peaceful assembly on campus.
“We call upon the Dalhousie administration and all university administrations in the Atlantic region to respect students’ right to peaceful protest.
“We urge the administration of all campuses in the region to honour the students’ demands for transparency around the financial investments of our universities, and to divest from all funds complicit in Israel’s occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people.”
Beginning on Friday, May 10, the coalition of students from NSCAD, SMU, Dal and King’s began releasing their specific demands of disclosure and divestment to their own university administrations.
The Coast has reached out to each university for comment. ***As of Tuesday May 14, Dal is the only school administration to respond, by sharing a public statement made Monday evening here from Dal’s president Kim Brooks and Dal’s vice-provost student affairs Rick Ezekiel.
It includes the following lines: “We are committed to the safety and well-being of our entire community and, in alignment with our mission as a learning institution, to maintaining open lines of communication through respectful, non-violent dialogue and debate – even, and especially, when those conversations are hard.
“We are monitoring the peaceful protest and engaging with its organizers and participants with those principles in mind…” and makes a request of everyone to “be respectful of others, in your words and actions, as you engage on this important issue.
“Many people are struggling with the state of the world right now and, as a university, it is essential that we remain a place of informed debate and critical discourse where conflicting views can co-exist, while we strive to see each other’s humanity across difference.”
This is a developing story as of May 14.
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